New York's Unemployed Olympians

Elia Roldan had just received a new lab coat with her name embroidered on the pocket. She worked as a dermatological assistant and although her doctor's office was struggling — fewer people are getting Botoxed these days — her boss assured her that everything was fine. But that was a month ago. Now she is at Manhattan's Tompkins Square Park at 2 pm on a Tuesday, tossing an office telephone down a measured runway in the very first, and possibly only, Unemployment Olympics. "It's not like I have anywhere I have to be," she says, "I mean, not anymore." She is...